bradstrait.com — real life stories from a christian mystic

MTV Priests

On our trip to Uganda, so many things don’t “fit” easily into one’s mind. The modern era mixes with the 1600’s like two colors of paint poured out onto a canvas. Highways and ox carts mix. Modern apartments are built with bamboo scaffolding. Thatched roofs on huts with TV satellite dishes are common. Worship in a mud-wall church with no power is interrupted by the musical tones of cell phones. A home has an open fire kitchen and solar panels. The people, too, are both modern and ancient. Full of old customs and ways, yet discussing micro-finance loans. One sees classical garments, bright prints with puffed sleeves, or worn-through “Just do it” T-shirts.

My favorite: our host, an Anglican priest from the Church of Uganda, is wearing a formal ecclesiastical collar, shirt and coat with a rhinestone MTV belt. Who could have imagined? It makes me smile. Our God is full of surprises.